


15 Minutes in the Life of Natasha Romanov

by Staring_at_starry_skies (eleanor_jane)



Series: 15 Minutes Of Their Lives [2]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Natasha Romanov, F/M, Kid Natasha Romanov, Natasha Feels, Natasha Needs a Hug, Natasha Romanov Feels, Natasha-centric, POV Natasha Romanov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 01:32:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8470468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eleanor_jane/pseuds/Staring_at_starry_skies
Summary: Natasha Romanov, in the fifteen most important minutes of her life. From an orphan to a weapon, from a monster to a hero, from a girl taught to kill to an Avenger.Warning: mentions of operations, murder and slight mention of gore."She is shaking and dehydrated and she can feel blood soaking into the ground as she screams out a name from long ago. Nobody comes, so she grits her teeth and pulls her broken, battered body across the harsh rock face. She will not die today."





	

I  
She is five years old and she is scared of the fire – redder than her hair, the hearth fire’s terrible cousin – as she clutches her doll. The flames grow until the whole house in front of her is red and orange and black smoke and she is alone. She cries out for her parents for hours, but they do not come to her.

II  
Ivan is kind; he has been for the year since the funeral. He has many scars and an eye patch and tells her she will do amazing things one day. 

III  
She is eight and the Red Room is cold and she hates it. She cries for the first night until gnaw of an empty stomach and the ache of tired muscles teach her silence. 

IV  
She is eleven and she has just killed a man. 

V  
She is thirteen and she has just killed Anna, the girl next to her with the scarred face and the shaky pirouette who shared her bread on a Sunday. She didn't want to kill her but she was told to so she did. Anna had looked at her like she was a monster. 

VI  
She is sixteen and her begging is futile as she is strapped to the gurney, left sobbing and praying for the first time since she was eight years old. 

VII  
It is one day later and now when she looks in the mirror she sees the monster Anna did. She kills three unknown women within an hour: she snaps their necks. 

VIII  
The hospital fire: blistering her skin as she watches helplessly, the screams of the powerless filling the frozen air. The tendrils of smoke licking at the sky are carved onto her eyelids and she turns away. 

IX Twenty years old now and sipping a cocktail as the man opposite her grins in the moonlight. His hands are calloused and he kills her mark and she kisses him but doesn’t slide her knife in like she planned to. 

X  
She is shaking and dehydrated and she can feel blood soaking into the ground as she screams out a name from long ago. Nobody comes, so she grits her teeth and pulls her broken, battered body across the harsh rock face. She will not die today. XI  
The calloused man is offering her chance at something more. She takes his hand. 

VII  
Strike Team Delta is hope packaged in bruises and long, draining missions and a handler who cares for them through the weary years. The calloused man is there by her side through it all. 

VIII  
Avengers: the calloused man’s eyes are glowing blue and her world is expanding but it means nothing without him. Loki is her worst nightmare and she never though a super soldier and a billionaire would be the ones fighting by her side through it but somehow they are. 

XIV  
She makes a choice, and blows up her world. She releases the files and destroys her safety net for a man who represents an organization that represented something once. Then she is left with shattered building blocks and runs away to forge something new to protect her from the cold. 

XV  
Her and calloused man buy a farm between missions. The world falls apart but the farm has a lake that is always cool and a tractor that never starts. They install central heating and rip out the fire and she feels safe as they hold each other tight through the nightmares.


End file.
